Islam And DeJa Vu

De ja vu is a french term which literally means “already seen”. It refers to the feeling one has when they feel they have already witnessed or experienced something which has just occurred. Normally, when someone feels a sense of de ja vu, they feel as though they have felt it previously in a dream. De ja vu shows that nothing in this Universe is static, and some say that we are “looping” hence reliving a time more than once.

I’ve always wondered how Islam explains de ja vu. I had my own thoughts about it, and why I think it occurrs, but I’ve never looked into it to see if what I put it down to holds true.The way I’ve always seen it, and how I explained in my nikah day post, our souls can move and stretch in a way that our bodies can’t. I’ve always thought as well as having the ability to intetrwine with other souls, they have the ability to move into other realms.

I researched around quite abit, and what I’ve found is this from various sources and shaykhs, although no direct mention of deja vu is made in Quran or hadith (Please remember these are just my findings, and what I see to make sense on the matter!):Our souls can indeed move between realms. They aren’t limited to time or space, and can expand into other realms without leaving our bodies. Due to this quality, our souls can visit the realms of the past, future, material and spiritual realms.

Some pin deja vu down to the first type of dream I talked about in my Believer’s bank post about Dreams, the true dream. They feel that they have been sent a dream from Allah swt, which showed them what was going to happen.However, I sway more towards another argument, to do with our souls visiting other realms, especially because the feeling of de ja vu is not always a positive moment (whereas true dreams are generally good). Or I would say that this concept of a true dream, intertwined with my upcoming argument, explains the phenomenon of deja vu.

From my research, I found that in our dreams, our souls visit the past and the future realms, and sometimes stay there for enough time to gather enough sentimental value so that when our present selves come into contact with that moment, we feel we have already been there…Because, in essence, our souls have already been there. I guess this also explains how in our dreams, we feel as though we have such a strong connection to a place we appear to have “made up”, because in our dreams our souls are travelling from realm to realm, and probably have really visited such a place! The same goes for why sometimes we have a strong feeling of attachment towards a person, who we have never met before, because our souls have already created an attachment to that somebody! SubhanAllah I think this makes so much sense! It clearly explains to me, what I’ve always felt, that some individuals feel so connected to you spiritually, despite only knowing them for an hour or so! (As is the case with spouses and long lost parents etc etc.)

The spiritual realm has always fascinated me beyond belief, and I put everything down to our souls. SubhanAllah the concept of deja vu has just reiterated the astounding dimensions to ourselves that Allah swt has created! It’s unbelievable just how many layers to one person there really are, especially when you think that our understanding of it hasn’t even scratched the surface!

Any good in this post is from Allah swt only, and any bad is from myself and shaitan.

Edit: I thought about adding the following verse into this post before, but decided not to. But a reader commented on the same matter, so I’m just going to include it here at then end, as it’s a beautiful piece of information!

Our souls have all previously been together at the time of Adam A.S., when er were all brought forward by Allah swt to testify to Him!

“And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their loins, their seed (or from Adam’s loin his offspring) and made them testify as to themselves (saying): “Am I not your Lord?” They said: “Yes! We testify,” lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: “Verily, we have been unaware of this.” Or lest you should say: “It was only our fathers aforetime who took others as partners in worship along with Allah, and we were (merely their) descendants after them; will you then destroy us because of the deeds of men who practiced Al-Batil (i.e. polytheism and committing crimes and sins, invoking and worshipping others besides Allah)?” Thus do We explain the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) in detail, so that they may turn (unto the truth).” [Quran 7: 172-174]

7 responses to “Islam And DeJa Vu”

wow! I have also always wondered about the Islamic stand on deja vu as it can be very strong feelings sometimes. it’s also beautiful to think that our dreams can indeed have some reality in them. jazakAllah khair for posting this

There was this time, I was 8 years old living with my family in saudi arabia. So we planned on visiting madina..and the night before..i saw in my dream that the car we were travelling in was upside down..and me climbing out of it. The exact thing happened the next day ! I still try to find an answer to that

wow! this was really helpful for me … i am just 14 years and i was wondering how does it relates with Islam it was always a puzzle for me finally i found it and this was really really help full and this is amazing. Jazakalla khair!